June 10, 2025 • 25 mins
Mike and Wes preview mandatory minicamp, beginning with CB Jaire Alexander's release (:21), the depth at the corner position (8:10), other topics on the radar this week (11:43), and the first impression of LG Aaron Banks (19:13).
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spofford, joined by the
one and only Wes Hodkowitz. We're coming to you hear
from our studios at lambeau Field.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Wes.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
It's Mini Camp week. It is the final week of
the off season program before the players and coaches take
their summer break, and then we come back for training
camp and the writers will try to take a break
in there somewhere, right. That's sort of the idea at
some point along the way. Before we get to previewing
(00:38):
Mini Camp, though, just need to touch on the bit
of news from Monday at twelve sixty five, which is
that the Packers ultimately released seven year veteran cornerback and
two time second team All Pro JayR Alexander. It had
been sort of an uncertain situation all off season long
as to whether Alexander would be back or not, or
(01:02):
traded or what would happen. Ultimately, it sounds like they weren't.
Packers and Alexander's camp were not able to agree on
a restructured contract. Finding a trade partner didn't exactly work out,
and with this being a mandatory mini camp week. It
was time for a decision to be made, and that
(01:23):
decision was made and the Packers have moved on.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yeah. In credit to the Packers and honestly credit to
Jah too. I don't think this thing played out that
much in the media. I think there was a lot
of conjecture, but not a lot of bickering back and
forth or anything like that. It's two professionals, two sides
that I think at the end of the day, it
probably wasn't everybody's best interest for a fresh start. I'll
be honest with you, Michael. I made this very clear
on social media. I mean, this hurts my heart. I
(01:46):
love Jaw. I've really enjoyed covering him the last six
seven years and I will continue to say this and
you had to edit my insider inbox, but I just
feel like there's in all our time, in my time
covering the team, there's ever been a player that's probably
been more misunderstood than jay R Alexander. He's a good,
kind hearted individual. I mean, there's a reason why you
(02:08):
saw so many players on this team reposting the Packers
thank you graphic to Jaw on their stories on Instagram.
Seeing people reach out. You heard Xavier McKinney and Jordan
Love and Josh Jacobs, all these guys talk about him
this offseason and what he means to this locker room.
But here's the thing, and this is the fact of
the matter. I mean, jo'sman banged up the last few years,
(02:30):
and he's played I believe it's thirty four games since
the twenty twenty season. The Packers had to make changes
last year, losing him the second half of the year,
and a lot of those changes, you know, really worked
out well for this defense. When you saw what Keyshawn
Nixon can do on the perimeter, when you saw Carrington
Valentine getting opportunities again outside, and obviously the depth that
they have at the safety position, and now bringing in
(02:52):
Nate Hobbs. I mean, the Packers have made the necessary adjustments.
You hope, for Jayr's sake, you can catch on somewhere
get back to the type of player I think everybody
knows he can be. But this is obviously the direction
of the Packers have chosen to go. And I think
as you move forward down to training camp here in
the next six seven weeks, probably the best thing just
to be able to have this kind of new chapter.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Yeah, it's one of those situations where where the business
of football, you know, sort of gets in the way
of of you know what, everybody would just like it
to be all simple and and and the business of
football isn't simple when you're talking about injuries and high
priced contracts and and you know, the the commitments and
(03:32):
and all the all the stuff in the CBA and
and uh. And it's two sides, a team and an
individual player looking out for you know, their own best interests,
and sometimes, uh, sometimes those things just don't connect and
the and that can be the business of the game.
I personally, I'm I really enjoyed covering JayR Alexander as well.
(03:56):
I had a really nice, I'll never forget this, a
really nice sit down interview with him. It was actually
after his rookie season. I was doing a feature story
in the Packers' yearbook heading into twenty nineteen, after he
was the first dround pick in twenty eighteen, and obviously
impressed as a rookie and just sitting down and talking
(04:17):
football with the guy. But then once you start talking
football with him, the conversation always ends up kind of
going somewhere else right, and you it's like you get
to know somebody a little bit. And I'll always remember
that conversation because I learned very early on that Jay R.
Alexander he's wired a little bit differently than just your
(04:40):
average NFL player, for lack of a better phrase. But
that's not necessarily a bad thing. We've seen guys wired
differently come in and out of locker rooms like all
the time. It's part of how things go here. And
when the guy was healthy, he was a heck of
a player for this team. And I I hope he
(05:00):
can get back to that level again. I hope he
can find good health in his career and UH and
get back to UH to the all pro level player
that he's been in the past. Will UH. We'll see
what happens in that regard. The Packers of UH Packers
have been planning for this. This is not this is
not something that was a last minute, whimsical decision bringing
(05:24):
in Nate Hobbs and in UH in the offseason. Obviously
they learned, as we've talked a lot on the show
about Keishawn Nixon and what he proved that he could
do last year. There's a there will be a lot
of eyes on Carrington Valentine now moving forward, and I
think even though Valentine, you know, wasn't a big part
(05:46):
of this defense for the first half of last season
as he was dealing with a lot of injuries and stuff,
we started to see some of Carrington Valentine's best football
towards the end of last season, and I think that's
where he's hoping to be able to to pick up
where he left off as Jeff Haflee and the secondary
coaches pieced together exactly what the secondary is going to
(06:07):
look like in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Now. Yeah, and you know how it goes within cider inbox.
You know how it goes with social media. The moment
you move on from a player, people are always looking
at one of the big veteran names of free agents
that are available, and I understand why fans go down
that route. But at the same time, when those questions
were posed to me, the first thing I said was,
I think Carrenton Valentine. I know, Carenton Valentine deserves the
(06:28):
right to compete for a starting position, a permanent role
on this defense. He's been a tremendous, tremendous soldier for
Green Bay the last two seasons. Starts twelve games his
rookie years in a pinch. Last year he ends up,
as you mentioned, has the hamstring injuries, the soft tissue injuries.
At the beginning of the season, kind of falls out
of the rotation a little bit, was mostly just doing
special teams, and then when the gay air stuff happens
(06:50):
again after Jacksonville, he's thrown back in the lineup. And
for as much as people have talked about jazz situation
in Nate Hobbs and obviously Keishawn Nixon in his comments
about kickoff returns and him wanting to play outside cornerback's,
it's mind boggling to me that a bigger topic hasn't
been this offseason. How Karens and Valentine really peaked at
the end of last season. The interceptions that had eluded
(07:13):
him at times during his college career at Kentucky and
also early on with this time with Green Bay, he
started pulling those passes down. Now he is a legit playmaker.
And I keep mentioning this to you, Michael, the guy's
twenty three years old. The Packers have players I think
in this rookie draft class that are older than Carrington
Valentine because he went out so early for the draft
(07:33):
as a true junior. Well, now you're seeing him come
into his own And the other thing I will also
mention what I love about the way the Packers have
situated this secondary. You have a guy Nate Hobbs who
right now, at this point in time, looks like potentially
that Star Nickel position. Well, if an injury happens on
the outside, people ask, what happens, who do you go to? Well,
Hobbs can go outside, and you got Bullard that can
play inside. You have the other these safeties that can
(07:55):
get involved in that. It's not just about perimeter, cornerback, inside, cornerback, slot, dime,
whatever you want to call it. It's about having a
multitude of players that can play those positions. And I
think that's ultimately going to be a huge strength of
this defense this season.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
And I think that's what we're going to be continuing
to watch this week during mini camp and then obviously
during training camp as well. But just how the pieces
are coming together in the secondary. I think when you
look at the cornerback position for the Packers right now,
when you look at both outside and in the slot.
It seems to me the top four guys, not in
(08:29):
any particular order, are Nixon, Hobbs, Valentine, and Bullard. Bullard
being a guy who plays the slot, Valentine being a
guy who plays outside, Nixon and Hobbs being guys that
will play beat either one. So in a sense, those
are your top four cornerbacks, even though I know officially
Bullard is a safety, but those are your top four
(08:49):
cornerbacks for your nickel package. And I think where this
goes from here is, Okay, how does the depth line
up behind that? Are the Packers going to make another acquisition? Potentially?
Where do things go with young guys like Kyln King
and Kamal Haddn't and a new recent signee who's got
(09:09):
some NFL game experience in Gregory Junior who has just
brought in recently, all of that stuff, the depth behind
those four guys is what needs to be sorted out.
Because you know as well as I do that we
can talk all we want about those four guys. The
chances of those four guys at cornerback being available for
(09:30):
all seventeen games, plus hopefully the playoffs for the Packers
are pretty slim. So you're gonna need You're gonna need
the next guys to be stepping up behind them, and
I think that's going to be It's not only going
to be an ongoing conversation this week through mini camp
and also in training camp, but as the twenty twenty
five season develops, because some of those guys, like a
(09:51):
Gregory Junior for example, just got here and what impression
is he going to make, say during training camp to
make a bid for the fifth three as this cornerback
depth sorts itself out, for.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Sure, Mike, And that's one thing I think is also exciting.
It's a part of the uncertainty too, right, but I
mean for as much and kaylen King, we've heard rave
reviews from him so far this off season. Derek Ainsley,
the Packers passing him quarter, had talked a couple weeks
ago about he felt that he's had a really strong
offseason program. But Hadden is such an interesting one too
in that conversation because he was actually a higher draft
(10:23):
pick than King in the two thousand He was a
six twenty four draft, but the Packers brought him in
late at the beginning of the regular season on the
practice squad, so you kind of forget these things that
you know, Gregory Junior was a former draft pick. These
guys have credentials. These aren't just random dudes that the
Packers signed. But at the same time, you know, we
know player acquisition is a three hundred and sixty five
(10:46):
day yep thing. And there's been times where we've seen
Dennis Kelly come in the week before training camp, right,
I mean that they do make those signings too. So
seeing what the next move is for green Bay and
how you go about handling is gonna be really fascinating.
And also the fact of, you know, the salary cap
room that you've now cleared with JayR Alexander. The Packers
have a multitude of players from that twenty twenty two
(11:07):
draft class that'll be coming up for contracts here after
this season, you'll be able to extend work on extensions.
With a very promising twenty twenty three draft class, the
circle of NFL life just continues to go over and
you know restart. So a very bright future for green Bay.
But it was wild to me too. I'll close on this.
When we talked about green Bay, you know, going all
(11:28):
in or whatever in twenty one and all this thing,
and now Green Bay's at a position where they have
so much cap room to play with as well. Again,
a lot of different things that Brian Goodikuntz in this
personnel department can do.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Yeah, what else are you going to be watching for
here during the three days of mini camp? Just to
recap for the fans. Mini camp as of now scheduled
for Tuesday, Wednesday Thursday this week and this will wrap
up the off season program after this. It's like it's
like the last day of school for the players. They
head out on their summer break and then they will
report back. I believe it's July twenty two for training camp,
(12:01):
with the first practice schedule for July twenty three. I know,
you know, we've seen the cross training going on with
the offensive line. We've seen, you know, all sorts of
different guys getting reps at wide receiver with Jordan Love
with the number one offense. What are the kinds of
things you'll be looking for on the practice field?
Speaker 2 (12:20):
I can't wait to see. Obviously, most of these guys
will be in you know, I have already been here,
so we've seen some of these matchups already. But you know,
if you watch that I don't know if you got
a chance to check out or if people have had
a chance to check out the micd up segment that
our video department put together. Matt Lafleur from last week.
You know, he had a speech for the guys at
the end of practice where he was talking about asking
the veterans directing this at the young guys, what's it
(12:42):
going to be like out here? Once training comp comes around,
It's going to be hotter. The competition is going to
be fiercer. Everything ramps up. This is the final notch
here before I mean the final warm up if you will. Yeah,
before you know, jobs in positions and things are going
to start to get decided. You're no longer just going
to be locked into one role. They're going to start
figuring out, Okay, who fits best where and what is
(13:03):
that depth shart going to potentially look like. So from
that perspective, this Receiving Corps is going to continue to
be probably the biggest I think highlight of watching these practices.
We saw it again last week and mattel Flour again
talked about it every offseason. It seems like I mentioned
how Romeo Dobbs is the most consistent practice performer I
(13:24):
think I've seen outside of Jordan Nelson during my time
covering the Packers, he is just I mean, he doesn't
drop passes. He's wherever he needs to be. If you're
doing a two minute drive at the number one offense,
I guarantee you he's getting that ball three times. It's
just the way it always seems to work out. And
Dobbs's back to that again. He's put the concussion injury
and those type of things behind him and now trying
(13:45):
to play and get ready for again. As we've talked
about a huge year four for him. You know, Matthew Golden,
we saw the fast twitch muscle fiber in practice, and yeah,
he's not going to be the biggest receiver on the field,
but by golly, this guy finds ways to get open
and you can just see when he puts his foot
in the dirt how quickly he can get up field.
(14:06):
This is going to be a tremendous competition and you've
written about it, we all talked about it. I mean,
this is probably gonna be one of the hardest years
Green Bay's had figuring out what their fifty three man
roster is going to be like. Based on what this
off season ninety man roster has been, and I think
from that aspect of it, it's really exciting. So, yeah,
this is your last chance to make a final impression
(14:28):
here before we get to training camp, and you know,
everything really truly does shift into that final gear.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Yeah, it's interesting. I've been I've been asked an insider
inbox about, you know, is this the deepest Packers team
that you've ever covered? And I wasn't quite sure how
to answer that, but I answered it by saying, at
least in recent memory, this feels like one of the
deepest ninety man rosters as far as the off season
roster that I can recall. But I don't like to
(14:55):
say things like this is the this is the deepest
Packers team, because, for one, you can't keep every buddy right.
You've got to narrow this down to fifty three at
the end of August, beginning of September, and between now
and then, there is going to be stuff that happens.
And what I mean by stuff is guys are gonna
get hurt.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Though.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
You know, if injuries happen in training camp or the
preseason games, that's going to impact how the fifty three
shapes up and then and then what you're going into
Week one with and all that. So yeah, I really
like the night this ninety man roster that that Brian
Gudukunsten's personnel department have put together this summer. But ninety
(15:37):
getting cut down to fifty three. That's thirty seven. That's
thirty seven guys. You know, now a whole bunch of
those guys will be brought back on the practice squad.
And the practice squad is sixteen players now, which is
double the size of what it was a handful of
years ago. But still, you know how how that fifty
three shakes out? And I think I said it on
(15:59):
one of our shows earlier, I think the Packers are
going to be potentially releasing a lot more experienced NFL
players potentially than they have in years past because the
competition for that fifty three is going to be is
going to be so tough, and the personnel department has
done such a good job in recent drafts that even
(16:23):
if they see a draft pick that maybe isn't going
to play right away, they don't want to just they
don't want to just let that guy go. They want
that guy to be on the fifty three to continue
to develop and see where he is toward the end
of his rookie year, see where he is in his
second year. And if you believe in a player like that,
you don't want to just release him and cross your
fingers that you get him back on the practice squad,
(16:44):
because as soon as you release him, he's available to anybody,
and you don't know who might who might snatch him up.
And anybody who is on the practice squad is essentially
a free agent. They can go sign wherever they want
to if somebody comes along and offers them. So all
of those roster machinations have to get sorted out at
the end of training camp before we really get a
feel for, Okay, exactly how deep, how deep is this
(17:06):
Packers team? How did the depth sort itself out when
you had to when you have to make the tough
decisions and those are a ways away, and.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
You hit the nail on the head there with when
you look at the twenty two, twenty three, twenty four
draft classes, I personally think, you know, we talked so
much about Ron Wolf and oh he traded for Brett
Farv and he signed Reggie White and that was so
exciting people so oftentimes overlook the fact that those early
nineties drafts, the amount of capable players that built those
(17:35):
super Bowl teams. How many of those came in ninety two,
ninety three, ninety four, ninety five. Yep, this is what
it feels like right now with what Green Bay's done
with these these recent draft classes. You had twenty two,
which I think, pound for pound, is going to end
up being one of the best ones of the twenty
first century. When you think about the zach Thoms finding
them on Day three, right, a guy that could potentially
end up being an All Pro right tackle. When you
(17:56):
think about the playmakers like you know, Tucker Craft in
the third round in twenty twenty three, and then twenty
twenty four, the Packers might have gotten the best one
of all of them with Eddrian Cooper potentially with the
potential he showed early on and where he could potentially go.
That's how you build a championship team. I challenge people
like with this all the time. I Mean, you see
(18:16):
the the you know Kansas City, you see Philadelphia get
to the Super Bowl. How did they do that? It's
Patrick Mahomes as Jalen Hurst. Look at those recent draft
classes for the Philadelphia Eagles. I mean they hit it
out of the park with their drafts recently. If a
team makes it that far, if you look at their
last two or three drafts, chances are there was some
(18:37):
pretty talented football players that came out of it. And
I feel like that's where Green Bay's at right now.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Yeah, I agree with you. One other topic I want
to hit on before we go and hit the practice
field ourselves for watching mini camp. Here, Serious x MNFL
Radio delivers hard hitting analysis and up to the minute
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(19:03):
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years of better all right. A lot of content up
on packers dot com. You posted a story yesterday on
Zach Tom, the right tackle heading into a big year four.
We talked about Tom a lot on a previous show.
(19:23):
A story that you posted last week that we didn't
actually get a chance to address too much. Another offensive Lineman,
and it's the newcomer at left guard, Aaron Banks, the
free agent signing from the San Francisco forty nine ers.
Certainly an understated fella is his first meeting with the
media was nothing gregarious. There were no headlines necessarily coming
(19:47):
from the comments. But the one thing that you gleaned,
and certainly I did as well, is this is a
guy that, yeah, he was had a lot of success
with the forty nine ers, but that forty nine ers
team was always just so close and just couldn't quite
finish the deal. And he feels pretty good about coming
(20:09):
to this team, which maybe hasn't gotten as close as
the forty nine ers, but is still a team on
the rise and is possibly gonna get the same kind
of shot or shots that the forty nine ers have had.
His drive, his desire to win a Super Bowl is
one of the biggest reasons he's here.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
This guy man, It was until he said it that
I finally went back and looked at what the forty
nine ers statistics were and what their records looked like
the last four years. Yeah, I wrote it in the story.
I mean, Aaron Banks came as close as you can
get to winning a Super Bowl ring without doing it. Yep,
two NFC Championship Game appearances right away. You forget about that.
I forget about that. Maybe you didn't, but I forget
(20:50):
about you know, because we focus so much on what happened,
and you know, in the Super Bowl and kind of
losing that late and then the overtime and everything. You
forget that the two years before that they had lost
in the NFC Championship Game, and then last year they're
hoping to Okay, well we're going to close the door now. Yes,
we didn't get it done. We got another shot at
this thing, and you saw how the Christian McCaffrey injury,
the injuries that followed that sort of knock that train
(21:13):
off the tracks, and the forty nine ers. That was
a tough way to do this thing. So yeah, Aaron Banks,
obviously you're an unrestricted free agent. You want to take
care of your family, you want to get paid. But
he also didn't want to get too far away from
where he had already been. Yeah, in terms of being
a competitive, winning organization and culture, I think sometimes fans
get so wrapped up on well, these guys are making
(21:34):
all this money, these guys do this every single day, Mike,
You and I see them walk in this building every
single day. The hours they have to invest here in
both at home, taking care of themselves, training all that.
It is a NonStop job. Now, you don't want to
do that job and then come out with three wins
a season. You want to compete for that championship. And
(21:54):
that's where Banks feels like he is. That's where he
feels like this place has brought him to the fact.
In addition to the fact six five, three hundred and
twenty five pounds, the Green Bay Packers is they've started
to meld their offensive line. This is the direction this
thing is going. This is a power football team with
Josh Jacobs behind the controls, right. I mean, they want
to be able to run the ball directly at your
(22:15):
face and go through you to the end zone. Banks
is one of those guys that can help them do that.
In addition to the fact, he's pretty darn athletic for
a guy his size. This is a former second round
pick in twenty twenty one. I mean, this is a
guy that came in with major credentials from Notre Dame.
So now coming into his own twenty seven years old,
and kind of building himself up into this player that
he's become. The Packers feel like this guy could be
(22:37):
the missing piece, and certainly he's motivated to maximize on
that opportunity. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
One really interesting statistic that I found on Aaron Banks
back when the Packers signed him, and I had kind
of forgotten about it and then was reminded of it.
I was just looking it up the other day. He
basically started the last three seasons, other than missing a
couple games here and there with minor injuries, started the
last three full seasons at left guard for the forty
(23:04):
nine ers. That first year he was a starter at
left guard, he was flagged for holding five times. The
last two seasons combined, he was flagged for holding three times.
This is a guy who he got his opportunity, took
a few lumps, had to learn some things along the way,
and has developed into a polished pro whom the Packers believe,
(23:28):
as they always do when they make this type of
investment in a guy coming off of a rookie contract,
the Packers believe that he hasn't played his best well yet,
that there's still another another step forward for this guy,
And yeah, that could potentially be be a really big
step because this guy is an awfully big man and
(23:49):
he's going to he's going to have a presence in
the run game, man the pass game as the left
guard for this team.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
I'm glad you brought up the penalized thing too, because
it's the same thing with Nate Hobbs, where Hobbs played
a physical nickel position in Vegas had one accepted penalty
I think last season for defensive holding. I mean, this
is a guy that plays within his fundamentals, and that's
what this comes down to, particularly when you look at
the offensive line like that. When somebody has that few penalties,
it tells you two things. One, he's not getting beaten
(24:16):
in two, his technique and his fundamentals are where they
need to be. Because there is that old adage about, hey,
offensive linemen are holding on every single play, but are
you staying within the framework of the body. Are you
making sure that if a player gets a move on you,
you're not getting to that outside shoulder. Right. That's where
Banks has excelled. And when you see him physically, it
makes sense. I mean, this guy is a road grading
type interior offensive lineman. Now we have to see everything
(24:38):
that plays out here with Elton Jenkins and potentially him
at the center position. Obviously we've seen Sean Ryan take
and snaps there while also being in that competition for
right guard. Jacob Munk has gotten some important reps inside
and at the center position during this camp and then
certainly figuring out how everything's going to shuffle out the
left tackle position with Jordan Morgan potentially being incorporated into that.
What is the point I'm trying to make with all
(24:59):
that green Bay as options and in addition to the
fact that now you have a lynchpin, a guy that
you can build around at left guard, there's a lot
more flexibility that Green Bay can do there. That was
one of the drawbacks of where they were at with
Elton Jenkins is that if they had to move them,
if there was an injury there, who's stepping in for
him at left guard? Ye. Now you have a guy
like Banks that has that position, has that experience, has
(25:19):
done it at a high levels, played in those big games,
and also still having that versatility with a Jenkins, with
a Tom with a Sean Ryan, guys that can move
around a little bit. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Absolutely, Well, we got to head out to the practice
field catch what we can of Mini camp, so we
will call it a rap on this edition of Packers Unscripted.
Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the
team and this week's mini camp on packers dot com.
We will have one more unscripted show for you later
this week before we take a break from these chairs
(25:49):
and then come back for training camp. So for Wes,
I am Mike, thank you for tuning in. Everybody, we
will see excit
Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spofford, joined by the
one and only Wes Hodkowitz. We're coming to you hear
from our studios at lambeau Field.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Wes.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
It's Mini Camp week. It is the final week of
the off season program before the players and coaches take
their summer break, and then we come back for training
camp and the writers will try to take a break
in there somewhere, right. That's sort of the idea at
some point along the way. Before we get to previewing
(00:38):
Mini Camp, though, just need to touch on the bit
of news from Monday at twelve sixty five, which is
that the Packers ultimately released seven year veteran cornerback and
two time second team All Pro JayR Alexander. It had
been sort of an uncertain situation all off season long
as to whether Alexander would be back or not, or
(01:02):
traded or what would happen. Ultimately, it sounds like they weren't.
Packers and Alexander's camp were not able to agree on
a restructured contract. Finding a trade partner didn't exactly work out,
and with this being a mandatory mini camp week. It
was time for a decision to be made, and that
(01:23):
decision was made and the Packers have moved on.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
Yeah. In credit to the Packers and honestly credit to
Jah too. I don't think this thing played out that
much in the media. I think there was a lot
of conjecture, but not a lot of bickering back and
forth or anything like that. It's two professionals, two sides
that I think at the end of the day, it
probably wasn't everybody's best interest for a fresh start. I'll
be honest with you, Michael. I made this very clear
on social media. I mean, this hurts my heart. I
(01:46):
love Jaw. I've really enjoyed covering him the last six
seven years and I will continue to say this and
you had to edit my insider inbox, but I just
feel like there's in all our time, in my time
covering the team, there's ever been a player that's probably
been more misunderstood than jay R Alexander. He's a good,
kind hearted individual. I mean, there's a reason why you
(02:08):
saw so many players on this team reposting the Packers
thank you graphic to Jaw on their stories on Instagram.
Seeing people reach out. You heard Xavier McKinney and Jordan
Love and Josh Jacobs, all these guys talk about him
this offseason and what he means to this locker room.
But here's the thing, and this is the fact of
the matter. I mean, jo'sman banged up the last few years,
(02:30):
and he's played I believe it's thirty four games since
the twenty twenty season. The Packers had to make changes
last year, losing him the second half of the year,
and a lot of those changes, you know, really worked
out well for this defense. When you saw what Keyshawn
Nixon can do on the perimeter, when you saw Carrington
Valentine getting opportunities again outside, and obviously the depth that
they have at the safety position, and now bringing in
(02:52):
Nate Hobbs. I mean, the Packers have made the necessary adjustments.
You hope, for Jayr's sake, you can catch on somewhere
get back to the type of player I think everybody
knows he can be. But this is obviously the direction
of the Packers have chosen to go. And I think
as you move forward down to training camp here in
the next six seven weeks, probably the best thing just
to be able to have this kind of new chapter.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Yeah, it's one of those situations where where the business
of football, you know, sort of gets in the way
of of you know what, everybody would just like it
to be all simple and and and the business of
football isn't simple when you're talking about injuries and high
priced contracts and and you know, the the commitments and
(03:32):
and all the all the stuff in the CBA and
and uh. And it's two sides, a team and an
individual player looking out for you know, their own best interests,
and sometimes, uh, sometimes those things just don't connect and
the and that can be the business of the game.
I personally, I'm I really enjoyed covering JayR Alexander as well.
(03:56):
I had a really nice, I'll never forget this, a
really nice sit down interview with him. It was actually
after his rookie season. I was doing a feature story
in the Packers' yearbook heading into twenty nineteen, after he
was the first dround pick in twenty eighteen, and obviously
impressed as a rookie and just sitting down and talking
(04:17):
football with the guy. But then once you start talking
football with him, the conversation always ends up kind of
going somewhere else right, and you it's like you get
to know somebody a little bit. And I'll always remember
that conversation because I learned very early on that Jay R.
Alexander he's wired a little bit differently than just your
(04:40):
average NFL player, for lack of a better phrase. But
that's not necessarily a bad thing. We've seen guys wired
differently come in and out of locker rooms like all
the time. It's part of how things go here. And
when the guy was healthy, he was a heck of
a player for this team. And I I hope he
(05:00):
can get back to that level again. I hope he
can find good health in his career and UH and
get back to UH to the all pro level player
that he's been in the past. Will UH. We'll see
what happens in that regard. The Packers of UH Packers
have been planning for this. This is not this is
not something that was a last minute, whimsical decision bringing
(05:24):
in Nate Hobbs and in UH in the offseason. Obviously
they learned, as we've talked a lot on the show
about Keishawn Nixon and what he proved that he could
do last year. There's a there will be a lot
of eyes on Carrington Valentine now moving forward, and I
think even though Valentine, you know, wasn't a big part
(05:46):
of this defense for the first half of last season
as he was dealing with a lot of injuries and stuff,
we started to see some of Carrington Valentine's best football
towards the end of last season, and I think that's
where he's hoping to be able to to pick up
where he left off as Jeff Haflee and the secondary
coaches pieced together exactly what the secondary is going to
(06:07):
look like in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
Now. Yeah, and you know how it goes within cider inbox.
You know how it goes with social media. The moment
you move on from a player, people are always looking
at one of the big veteran names of free agents
that are available, and I understand why fans go down
that route. But at the same time, when those questions
were posed to me, the first thing I said was,
I think Carrenton Valentine. I know, Carenton Valentine deserves the
(06:28):
right to compete for a starting position, a permanent role
on this defense. He's been a tremendous, tremendous soldier for
Green Bay the last two seasons. Starts twelve games his
rookie years in a pinch. Last year he ends up,
as you mentioned, has the hamstring injuries, the soft tissue injuries.
At the beginning of the season, kind of falls out
of the rotation a little bit, was mostly just doing
special teams, and then when the gay air stuff happens
(06:50):
again after Jacksonville, he's thrown back in the lineup. And
for as much as people have talked about jazz situation
in Nate Hobbs and obviously Keishawn Nixon in his comments
about kickoff returns and him wanting to play outside cornerback's,
it's mind boggling to me that a bigger topic hasn't
been this offseason. How Karens and Valentine really peaked at
the end of last season. The interceptions that had eluded
(07:13):
him at times during his college career at Kentucky and
also early on with this time with Green Bay, he
started pulling those passes down. Now he is a legit playmaker.
And I keep mentioning this to you, Michael, the guy's
twenty three years old. The Packers have players I think
in this rookie draft class that are older than Carrington
Valentine because he went out so early for the draft
(07:33):
as a true junior. Well, now you're seeing him come
into his own And the other thing I will also
mention what I love about the way the Packers have
situated this secondary. You have a guy Nate Hobbs who
right now, at this point in time, looks like potentially
that Star Nickel position. Well, if an injury happens on
the outside, people ask, what happens, who do you go to? Well,
Hobbs can go outside, and you got Bullard that can
play inside. You have the other these safeties that can
(07:55):
get involved in that. It's not just about perimeter, cornerback, inside, cornerback, slot, dime,
whatever you want to call it. It's about having a
multitude of players that can play those positions. And I
think that's ultimately going to be a huge strength of
this defense this season.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
And I think that's what we're going to be continuing
to watch this week during mini camp and then obviously
during training camp as well. But just how the pieces
are coming together in the secondary. I think when you
look at the cornerback position for the Packers right now,
when you look at both outside and in the slot.
It seems to me the top four guys, not in
(08:29):
any particular order, are Nixon, Hobbs, Valentine, and Bullard. Bullard
being a guy who plays the slot, Valentine being a
guy who plays outside, Nixon and Hobbs being guys that
will play beat either one. So in a sense, those
are your top four cornerbacks, even though I know officially
Bullard is a safety, but those are your top four
(08:49):
cornerbacks for your nickel package. And I think where this
goes from here is, Okay, how does the depth line
up behind that? Are the Packers going to make another acquisition? Potentially?
Where do things go with young guys like Kyln King
and Kamal Haddn't and a new recent signee who's got
(09:09):
some NFL game experience in Gregory Junior who has just
brought in recently, all of that stuff, the depth behind
those four guys is what needs to be sorted out.
Because you know as well as I do that we
can talk all we want about those four guys. The
chances of those four guys at cornerback being available for
(09:30):
all seventeen games, plus hopefully the playoffs for the Packers
are pretty slim. So you're gonna need You're gonna need
the next guys to be stepping up behind them, and
I think that's going to be It's not only going
to be an ongoing conversation this week through mini camp
and also in training camp, but as the twenty twenty
five season develops, because some of those guys, like a
(09:51):
Gregory Junior for example, just got here and what impression
is he going to make, say during training camp to
make a bid for the fifth three as this cornerback
depth sorts itself out, for.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Sure, Mike, And that's one thing I think is also exciting.
It's a part of the uncertainty too, right, but I
mean for as much and kaylen King, we've heard rave
reviews from him so far this off season. Derek Ainsley,
the Packers passing him quarter, had talked a couple weeks
ago about he felt that he's had a really strong
offseason program. But Hadden is such an interesting one too
in that conversation because he was actually a higher draft
(10:23):
pick than King in the two thousand He was a
six twenty four draft, but the Packers brought him in
late at the beginning of the regular season on the
practice squad, so you kind of forget these things that
you know, Gregory Junior was a former draft pick. These
guys have credentials. These aren't just random dudes that the
Packers signed. But at the same time, you know, we
know player acquisition is a three hundred and sixty five
(10:46):
day yep thing. And there's been times where we've seen
Dennis Kelly come in the week before training camp, right,
I mean that they do make those signings too. So
seeing what the next move is for green Bay and
how you go about handling is gonna be really fascinating.
And also the fact of, you know, the salary cap
room that you've now cleared with JayR Alexander. The Packers
have a multitude of players from that twenty twenty two
(11:07):
draft class that'll be coming up for contracts here after
this season, you'll be able to extend work on extensions.
With a very promising twenty twenty three draft class, the
circle of NFL life just continues to go over and
you know restart. So a very bright future for green Bay.
But it was wild to me too. I'll close on this.
When we talked about green Bay, you know, going all
(11:28):
in or whatever in twenty one and all this thing,
and now Green Bay's at a position where they have
so much cap room to play with as well. Again,
a lot of different things that Brian Goodikuntz in this
personnel department can do.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Yeah, what else are you going to be watching for
here during the three days of mini camp? Just to
recap for the fans. Mini camp as of now scheduled
for Tuesday, Wednesday Thursday this week and this will wrap
up the off season program after this. It's like it's
like the last day of school for the players. They
head out on their summer break and then they will
report back. I believe it's July twenty two for training camp,
(12:01):
with the first practice schedule for July twenty three. I know,
you know, we've seen the cross training going on with
the offensive line. We've seen, you know, all sorts of
different guys getting reps at wide receiver with Jordan Love
with the number one offense. What are the kinds of
things you'll be looking for on the practice field?
Speaker 2 (12:20):
I can't wait to see. Obviously, most of these guys
will be in you know, I have already been here,
so we've seen some of these matchups already. But you know,
if you watch that I don't know if you got
a chance to check out or if people have had
a chance to check out the micd up segment that
our video department put together. Matt Lafleur from last week.
You know, he had a speech for the guys at
the end of practice where he was talking about asking
the veterans directing this at the young guys, what's it
(12:42):
going to be like out here? Once training comp comes around,
It's going to be hotter. The competition is going to
be fiercer. Everything ramps up. This is the final notch
here before I mean the final warm up if you will. Yeah,
before you know, jobs in positions and things are going
to start to get decided. You're no longer just going
to be locked into one role. They're going to start
figuring out, Okay, who fits best where and what is
(13:03):
that depth shart going to potentially look like. So from
that perspective, this Receiving Corps is going to continue to
be probably the biggest I think highlight of watching these practices.
We saw it again last week and mattel Flour again
talked about it every offseason. It seems like I mentioned
how Romeo Dobbs is the most consistent practice performer I
(13:24):
think I've seen outside of Jordan Nelson during my time
covering the Packers, he is just I mean, he doesn't
drop passes. He's wherever he needs to be. If you're
doing a two minute drive at the number one offense,
I guarantee you he's getting that ball three times. It's
just the way it always seems to work out. And
Dobbs's back to that again. He's put the concussion injury
and those type of things behind him and now trying
(13:45):
to play and get ready for again. As we've talked
about a huge year four for him. You know, Matthew Golden,
we saw the fast twitch muscle fiber in practice, and yeah,
he's not going to be the biggest receiver on the field,
but by golly, this guy finds ways to get open
and you can just see when he puts his foot
in the dirt how quickly he can get up field.
(14:06):
This is going to be a tremendous competition and you've
written about it, we all talked about it. I mean,
this is probably gonna be one of the hardest years
Green Bay's had figuring out what their fifty three man
roster is going to be like. Based on what this
off season ninety man roster has been, and I think
from that aspect of it, it's really exciting. So, yeah,
this is your last chance to make a final impression
(14:28):
here before we get to training camp, and you know,
everything really truly does shift into that final gear.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Yeah, it's interesting. I've been I've been asked an insider
inbox about, you know, is this the deepest Packers team
that you've ever covered? And I wasn't quite sure how
to answer that, but I answered it by saying, at
least in recent memory, this feels like one of the
deepest ninety man rosters as far as the off season
roster that I can recall. But I don't like to
(14:55):
say things like this is the this is the deepest
Packers team, because, for one, you can't keep every buddy right.
You've got to narrow this down to fifty three at
the end of August, beginning of September, and between now
and then, there is going to be stuff that happens.
And what I mean by stuff is guys are gonna
get hurt.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
Though.
Speaker 1 (15:14):
You know, if injuries happen in training camp or the
preseason games, that's going to impact how the fifty three
shapes up and then and then what you're going into
Week one with and all that. So yeah, I really
like the night this ninety man roster that that Brian
Gudukunsten's personnel department have put together this summer. But ninety
(15:37):
getting cut down to fifty three. That's thirty seven. That's
thirty seven guys. You know, now a whole bunch of
those guys will be brought back on the practice squad.
And the practice squad is sixteen players now, which is
double the size of what it was a handful of
years ago. But still, you know how how that fifty
three shakes out? And I think I said it on
(15:59):
one of our shows earlier, I think the Packers are
going to be potentially releasing a lot more experienced NFL
players potentially than they have in years past because the
competition for that fifty three is going to be is
going to be so tough, and the personnel department has
done such a good job in recent drafts that even
(16:23):
if they see a draft pick that maybe isn't going
to play right away, they don't want to just they
don't want to just let that guy go. They want
that guy to be on the fifty three to continue
to develop and see where he is toward the end
of his rookie year, see where he is in his
second year. And if you believe in a player like that,
you don't want to just release him and cross your
fingers that you get him back on the practice squad,
(16:44):
because as soon as you release him, he's available to anybody,
and you don't know who might who might snatch him up.
And anybody who is on the practice squad is essentially
a free agent. They can go sign wherever they want
to if somebody comes along and offers them. So all
of those roster machinations have to get sorted out at
the end of training camp before we really get a
feel for, Okay, exactly how deep, how deep is this
(17:06):
Packers team? How did the depth sort itself out when
you had to when you have to make the tough
decisions and those are a ways away, and.
Speaker 2 (17:13):
You hit the nail on the head there with when
you look at the twenty two, twenty three, twenty four
draft classes, I personally think, you know, we talked so
much about Ron Wolf and oh he traded for Brett
Farv and he signed Reggie White and that was so
exciting people so oftentimes overlook the fact that those early
nineties drafts, the amount of capable players that built those
(17:35):
super Bowl teams. How many of those came in ninety two,
ninety three, ninety four, ninety five. Yep, this is what
it feels like right now with what Green Bay's done
with these these recent draft classes. You had twenty two,
which I think, pound for pound, is going to end
up being one of the best ones of the twenty
first century. When you think about the zach Thoms finding
them on Day three, right, a guy that could potentially
end up being an All Pro right tackle. When you
(17:56):
think about the playmakers like you know, Tucker Craft in
the third round in twenty twenty three, and then twenty
twenty four, the Packers might have gotten the best one
of all of them with Eddrian Cooper potentially with the
potential he showed early on and where he could potentially go.
That's how you build a championship team. I challenge people
like with this all the time. I Mean, you see
(18:16):
the the you know Kansas City, you see Philadelphia get
to the Super Bowl. How did they do that? It's
Patrick Mahomes as Jalen Hurst. Look at those recent draft
classes for the Philadelphia Eagles. I mean they hit it
out of the park with their drafts recently. If a
team makes it that far, if you look at their
last two or three drafts, chances are there was some
(18:37):
pretty talented football players that came out of it. And
I feel like that's where Green Bay's at right now.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Yeah, I agree with you. One other topic I want
to hit on before we go and hit the practice
field ourselves for watching mini camp. Here, Serious x MNFL
Radio delivers hard hitting analysis and up to the minute
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(19:03):
golden fries, and creamy shakes, all paired with your favorite
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years of better all right. A lot of content up
on packers dot com. You posted a story yesterday on
Zach Tom, the right tackle heading into a big year four.
We talked about Tom a lot on a previous show.
(19:23):
A story that you posted last week that we didn't
actually get a chance to address too much. Another offensive Lineman,
and it's the newcomer at left guard, Aaron Banks, the
free agent signing from the San Francisco forty nine ers.
Certainly an understated fella is his first meeting with the
media was nothing gregarious. There were no headlines necessarily coming
(19:47):
from the comments. But the one thing that you gleaned,
and certainly I did as well, is this is a
guy that, yeah, he was had a lot of success
with the forty nine ers, but that forty nine ers
team was always just so close and just couldn't quite
finish the deal. And he feels pretty good about coming
(20:09):
to this team, which maybe hasn't gotten as close as
the forty nine ers, but is still a team on
the rise and is possibly gonna get the same kind
of shot or shots that the forty nine ers have had.
His drive, his desire to win a Super Bowl is
one of the biggest reasons he's here.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
This guy man, It was until he said it that
I finally went back and looked at what the forty
nine ers statistics were and what their records looked like
the last four years. Yeah, I wrote it in the story.
I mean, Aaron Banks came as close as you can
get to winning a Super Bowl ring without doing it. Yep,
two NFC Championship Game appearances right away. You forget about that.
I forget about that. Maybe you didn't, but I forget
(20:50):
about you know, because we focus so much on what happened,
and you know, in the Super Bowl and kind of
losing that late and then the overtime and everything. You
forget that the two years before that they had lost
in the NFC Championship Game, and then last year they're
hoping to Okay, well we're going to close the door now. Yes,
we didn't get it done. We got another shot at
this thing, and you saw how the Christian McCaffrey injury,
the injuries that followed that sort of knock that train
(21:13):
off the tracks, and the forty nine ers. That was
a tough way to do this thing. So yeah, Aaron Banks,
obviously you're an unrestricted free agent. You want to take
care of your family, you want to get paid. But
he also didn't want to get too far away from
where he had already been. Yeah, in terms of being
a competitive, winning organization and culture, I think sometimes fans
get so wrapped up on well, these guys are making
(21:34):
all this money, these guys do this every single day, Mike,
You and I see them walk in this building every
single day. The hours they have to invest here in
both at home, taking care of themselves, training all that.
It is a NonStop job. Now, you don't want to
do that job and then come out with three wins
a season. You want to compete for that championship. And
(21:54):
that's where Banks feels like he is. That's where he
feels like this place has brought him to the fact.
In addition to the fact six five, three hundred and
twenty five pounds, the Green Bay Packers is they've started
to meld their offensive line. This is the direction this
thing is going. This is a power football team with
Josh Jacobs behind the controls, right. I mean, they want
to be able to run the ball directly at your
(22:15):
face and go through you to the end zone. Banks
is one of those guys that can help them do that.
In addition to the fact, he's pretty darn athletic for
a guy his size. This is a former second round
pick in twenty twenty one. I mean, this is a
guy that came in with major credentials from Notre Dame.
So now coming into his own twenty seven years old,
and kind of building himself up into this player that
he's become. The Packers feel like this guy could be
(22:37):
the missing piece, and certainly he's motivated to maximize on
that opportunity. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:42):
One really interesting statistic that I found on Aaron Banks
back when the Packers signed him, and I had kind
of forgotten about it and then was reminded of it.
I was just looking it up the other day. He
basically started the last three seasons, other than missing a
couple games here and there with minor injuries, started the
last three full seasons at left guard for the forty
(23:04):
nine ers. That first year he was a starter at
left guard, he was flagged for holding five times. The
last two seasons combined, he was flagged for holding three times.
This is a guy who he got his opportunity, took
a few lumps, had to learn some things along the way,
and has developed into a polished pro whom the Packers believe,
(23:28):
as they always do when they make this type of
investment in a guy coming off of a rookie contract,
the Packers believe that he hasn't played his best well yet,
that there's still another another step forward for this guy,
And yeah, that could potentially be be a really big
step because this guy is an awfully big man and
(23:49):
he's going to he's going to have a presence in
the run game, man the pass game as the left
guard for this team.
Speaker 2 (23:54):
I'm glad you brought up the penalized thing too, because
it's the same thing with Nate Hobbs, where Hobbs played
a physical nickel position in Vegas had one accepted penalty
I think last season for defensive holding. I mean, this
is a guy that plays within his fundamentals, and that's
what this comes down to, particularly when you look at
the offensive line like that. When somebody has that few penalties,
it tells you two things. One, he's not getting beaten
(24:16):
in two, his technique and his fundamentals are where they
need to be. Because there is that old adage about, hey,
offensive linemen are holding on every single play, but are
you staying within the framework of the body. Are you
making sure that if a player gets a move on you,
you're not getting to that outside shoulder. Right. That's where
Banks has excelled. And when you see him physically, it
makes sense. I mean, this guy is a road grading
type interior offensive lineman. Now we have to see everything
(24:38):
that plays out here with Elton Jenkins and potentially him
at the center position. Obviously we've seen Sean Ryan take
and snaps there while also being in that competition for
right guard. Jacob Munk has gotten some important reps inside
and at the center position during this camp and then
certainly figuring out how everything's going to shuffle out the
left tackle position with Jordan Morgan potentially being incorporated into that.
What is the point I'm trying to make with all
(24:59):
that green Bay as options and in addition to the
fact that now you have a lynchpin, a guy that
you can build around at left guard, there's a lot
more flexibility that Green Bay can do there. That was
one of the drawbacks of where they were at with
Elton Jenkins is that if they had to move them,
if there was an injury there, who's stepping in for
him at left guard? Ye. Now you have a guy
like Banks that has that position, has that experience, has
(25:19):
done it at a high levels, played in those big games,
and also still having that versatility with a Jenkins, with
a Tom with a Sean Ryan, guys that can move
around a little bit. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Absolutely, Well, we got to head out to the practice
field catch what we can of Mini camp, so we
will call it a rap on this edition of Packers Unscripted.
Be sure to follow all of our coverage of the
team and this week's mini camp on packers dot com.
We will have one more unscripted show for you later
this week before we take a break from these chairs
(25:49):
and then come back for training camp. So for Wes,
I am Mike, thank you for tuning in. Everybody, we
will see excit
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
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Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Ridiculous History
History is beautiful, brutal and, often, ridiculous. Join Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown as they dive into some of the weirdest stories from across the span of human civilization in Ridiculous History, a podcast by iHeartRadio.